Echo Volume 3: The Dialectic of Agony (2017) by Kent Wayne is the third book in the Echo series.
Crusader Kischan Atriya is back and is on an action-packed and soul-searching journey. His mentor Chrysalis Verus is also back and while they spend most of this book apart, they do come together briefly as the book nears its conclusion. Actually that scene where they do pulls deeply at the heartstrings and is beautifully written. The book is great in terms of imagery and you really do get a sense of all the places in Echo that both Atriya and Verus find themselves in. Very vivid. The whole world of Echo is very creative but still often reflects our world in the present in so many ways. There is much action but this book does centre more on the emotional side of things than books 1 and 2. Atriya in particular is doing a lot of thinking about his life and his feelings on how he sees things. If you are a bit of an overthinker like me, you will find yourself relating a bit to his journey in this book and probably for that reason I took to this book more than the first even though I enjoyed them too. There is so much psychological thinking in this book and the inner thoughts of Atriya about the phoniness often present in Echo and whether or not he can conform to the society of Echo and what is found acceptable or not.
I think the entire series has been great so far but I think readers who like action will prefer books 1 & 2 while readers who are into questioning things to come to a conclusion will probably prefer book 3. In saying that, there is a bit of both in the three books and I actually love these two things being combined in the books because for some unknown reason many authors don’t often combine these two things in books. Each of these books are standalone books but even better as a collection.
I was delighted to see Verus back. I think she is fantastic. Very strong, very loyal, very gutsy and her humour is quite good too when she gets going. Both Atriya and Verus can at times be quite flawed characters. They can get a bit violent at times but I think it’s all done with the feeling of needing to survive. Self-defence really so I don’t hold it against them. If your back is against the wall, what are you going to do? And they have been trained to survive in this way. I also like that they both fight other people without gender discrimination. Atriya fights both men and women and how many times have we seen in books men saying they wouldn’t fight a woman and pass it off as chivalry when really it’s just condescending? In saying that, I wouldn’t like to get into a physical fight with either of them!
Atriya’s speech near the end without giving too much away is fantastic. I loved that. What a dude! I also loved the idea of sunglasses being primitive which presents to readers that in years to come items we use will have went out of fashion. I also love Atriya’s and Verus’ relationship. It is so lovely and often heartbreaking to read and you definitely find yourself rooting for them.
I’m looking forward to book 4 in the series Echo Volume 4: The Last Edge of Darkness. The book is the final book in the series and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all pans out.
To purchase Echo Volume 3: The Dialectic of Agony by Kent Wayne go to:
To read my review on Echo Volume 1: Approaching Shatter and get details on where to purchase it go to:
To read my review on Echo Volume 2: The Taste of Ashes and get details on where to purchase it go to:
And for more information on Kent Wayne and his work go to: